Hill

made it obligatory upon the towns and cities to
provide a superintendent of schools. He was
also responsible for a new and improved system
of collecting school statistics, for higher stand-
ards of admission to the normal schools, for the
beginnings of state certification of teachers, and
for a revision and strengthening of school at-
tendance. His reports are models for their clear
statement of educational policy. As secretary
of the board he was ex officio a member of the
Massachusetts School Fund, a trustee of the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts and of the State
Agricultural College, and a member of the cor-
poration of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology. One of the best of the addresses which
he delivered in his later years, Seven Lamps -for
the Teacher's Way (1904), was published after
his death, with a biographical sketch by R. G.
Huling.

[In addition to the above mentioned sketch, see OUt.
Record Grads. Bowdoin Coll. 1904 (1905); Jour, of
Educ.j Sept. 17, 1903; School Review, Dec. 19035
Who's Who in America, 1901-02; Boston Transcript,
Sept. 12,1903 ; for his work with the Mass. State Board
of Educ., see reports for period of his secretaryship.]

D.C.K.

HILL, FREDERIC STANHOPE (i8os-Apr.
7,1851), actor, playwright, was born in Boston,
Mass. At an early age he showed a slight talent
for versifying, and at twenty-one he published a
small volume of verse, The Harvest Festival
with Other Poems (1826). Undistinguished in
form and content, these poems represent his only
attempt in the field of verse. At the death of his
father in 1827, Hill inherited a small fortune.
He then abandoned the study of law and began
the publication of the Boston Lyceum, a literary
journal. In 1830 he bought the Galaxy, a weekly
magazine, but in a little more than a year he was
forced into chancery, having lost his money in
his publishing ventures. Now, with no previous
stage experience, he decided to become an actor.
On Mar. 12, 1832, he made his first appearance
on the stage, playing Hotspur at the Richmond
Hill Theatre, New York. On Mar. 22, he acted
Romeo to the Juliet of Mrs. Duff, and on Mar.
30 he played Orlando in As You Like It. Hav-
ing won a measure of approbation from the New
York public, he returned to his native city where,
on Apr. 22, 1832, he made his debut to Boston
audiences at the Tremont Theatre, playing Ro-
meo to Mrs. Barrett's Juliet He subsequently
played Charles Surface in The School for Scan-
dal, Frederick in The Poor Gentleman, and
Charles Austencourt in Man and Wife. In this
same year William Pelby, a Boston producer,
secured him as stage-manager for the Warren
Theatre (renamed the National in 1836). Hill
held this position as actor and stage-manager

Hill
until 1838. In 1834 he wrote two plays which
won some contemporary praise. Both were
adaptations from popular French melodrama.
His first piece was named The Six Degrees of
Crime; or, Wine, Women, Gambling, Theft,
Murder, and the Scaffold, a melodrama in six
parts. It was first played at the Warren Thea-
tre, Boston, in January 1834, then taken to
Philadelphia, where Hill made his first appear-
ance in that city at the Arch Street Theatre,
Mar. 6, 1834, and on Mar. 19, it was put on at
the Bowery in New York. In it Hill was cast
as the profligate Julio Dormilly. His second
play was The Shoemaker of Toulouse; or, the
Avenger of Humble Life, an adaptation from
Le Savatier de Toulouse. This four-act drama,
with all the paraphernalia of melodrama, was
produced at the Warren in 1834 and revived at
the Tremont in 1840. For almost a score of
years these two plays were stock pieces in the
American theatres. After 1838 Hill had but a
nominal connection with the theatre. His health
began to fail and he retired from the stage, mak-
ing brief returns to acting from time to time.
His last appearance was at the Howard Athe-
naeum (Boston) in the character of Cassio in
1851. As an actor his happiest parts were in
light comedy. On June 7, 1828, Hill married
Mary Welland Blake, and on Aug. 4,1829, Fred-
eric Stanhope, their only child, was born.
[An unsigned memoir which prefaces The Six De-
grees of Crime (Boston, 1855) contains some bio-
graphical material and a list of Hill's plays, -but it is
vague and not very trustworthy. The Shaw Theatre
Collection at Harvard University contains a briefer
though more reliable memoir. Brief references to Hill
as actor and playwright are found in G. C. D. Odell,
Annals of the N. Y. Stage, vols. Ill and IV (1928);
W. W. Clapp, A Record of the Boston Stage (1853) J
T. A. Brown, Hist, of the Am. Stage (copyright 1870),
p. 176; Walter M. Leman, Memories of an Old Actor
(1886), p. 95; Boston Transcript, Apr. 8, 1851.]
H.W.S—g—r.
HILL, FREDERICK TREVOR (May 5,
i866-Mar. 17, 1930), New York lawyer, his-
torian, writer of fiction, was born in Brooklyn,
N. Y., the son of Edward and Mary (Johnson)
Hill. His parents were both natives of England.
After completing his preparatory studies at the
Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, he entered Yale
in the class of 1887 and following his graduation
studied law at Columbia. He served for two
years as clerk to Col. Robert Ingersoll and from
1890 to 1900 was a member of the law firm of
Wood & Hill. In the latter year he began his
independent law practice, which, covering a
period of thirty years, established his reputation
as an authority in the fields of surrogate's prac-
tice and estate and business law. His legal ca-
reer was temporarily interrupted by his military